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Blaise Siwula
After periodic explorations of drama, poetry, architecture, visual art, a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. and a stint in Europe, I arrived in NYC in 1989 with my family and an alto sax.
In the past 18 years I have been actively involved with the NYC Improv Scene: Amica Bunker, the Improvisers Collective and most recently the C.O.M.A. series at ABC No-Rio recent as in the past 10 years As a composer I have incorporated traditional musical scoring techniques with visual/graphical and performance oriented presentations and a simple philosophy- sound and vision are inter-related in life and art resulting in communication.
Although primarily an alto saxophonist I play a number of reed, flute, percussion and string instruments at varying degrees of competency per composition requirements and recently began including computer altered sound files in performance as background for improvisation.
Currently my instruments of choice are: Alto, Tenor & Soprano Saxophones; Bb Clarinet, Eb Alto Cl & Bb Bass Clarinet.
This has resulted in my performing and collaborating with an extreme variety of types of improvised music including:
Guitarist Sten Hostfalt, Doug Walker's Alien Planetscapes, Cecil Taylor's Ptonagas; William Hooker's Ensembles, Judy Dunaway's Balloon Trio; Rowe Siwula Miano Trio, Dialing Privileges Trio w. Dom Minasi & John Bollinger; BCJ Trio with Chris Welcome & John McCellan, A + B2 with Robert Marsh; Market Street Jazz w. Ken Simon, Hal Onserud, Karen Borca & Jackson Krall; Dagaz Trio w. William Parker & Michael Evans; BE Duet w. Evan Gallagher, Tan Dun; Katsuyuki Itakura, Michael Khoury, The Improvisors Collective (NYC); Glass Factory w. Donald Miller, Duet with Ravi Padmanabha; The B & B Duet w. Bob Meyer, Erie Nites w. Robyn Siwula; HSM w. Gary Hassay & Toshi Makihara, Trio with Eyal Maoz & Dale Miller; The Jeff Platz Ensemble, Joseph Scianni, Jeffrey Hayden Shurdut; Music in the Foreground w. Ge-Suk Yeo; the Slam trio w. Adam Lane & Toshi Makihara; The Lower Eastside Social Club w. Matty Paris, Gregory Wildes, Christobal Jacques and Drew Gardner; Expositions of Freedom Now! w. Vattel Cherry & Jeff Arnal; MAMBO MANTIS w. Bonnie Kane, Chris Welcome & Ray Sage; and most recently in duet with Guitarist Carsten Radtke,
I have been honored also to work with these musicians and composers - Peter Kowald, John Fischer, Perry Robinson, Newman Taylor Baker, John Voigt, Wilber Morris Clare De Brunner, Joseph Daly, Vincent Chancey, Christoph Irmer, Maria de Alvear, Theo Jorgesmann, Ralff Schussel, Hans Tammen, Killick, Phillip Lang, Tini Hagler, Michael Zerang, Fred Lomberg Holmes, Stan Nishimura, Nils Gerod, Jesse Henry, Louis Barnes, Mark Hennen, Rashid Bakar, Pelthead, Fly, Frank Keeley, Christian Begemann, Pieter Prije, Olaf Rupp, Harri Sjorstrom, Richard Keene, Tor Snyder, Bob Littman, Matt Weston, Eric Zinman, Glynnis Lomon, Tatsuya Nakatani, Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen, Heiner Metzger, Hans Schüttler, Likas Ligeti, Sarah Weaver, James Ilgenfritz, Motoko Shimizu, Ed Chang, Brian Osborne, Raoul Björkenheim, Sei Mguel, Fala Mariam, Margarida Garcia, Manuel Mota, Ernesto Rodrigues, Guilherme Rodrigues, Moe Staiano, Hill Greene, Joe McPhee, Daniel Carter, Christopher Forbes, Bern Nix, Paul Hession, Francois Grillot, Yuki Saga, Ryusaku Ikezawa, Jiro Shoda, Syd Smart, Mario Rechtern, Jacques Nobili, Hannes Schweiger, Hermann Stangassinger, John Edwards, Mick Beck, Paul Moore, Mike Fortune, Kit Demos, Gary Wallen, Django Carranza, Brian Groder, Jordon Schranz, Mike Pride.
Gear
Alto Sax Borgani Alto Sax MarkVII Alto Sax Conn 6m Tenor Sax Borgani Curved Soprano Sax Bb Cl Selmer Depose 1928 Eb Cl Pedler Bass Cl Selmer
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Three Shots from Siwula: Blaise Siwula & NoFrillsMusic
by Jakob Baekgaard
The emergence of free jazz in the 1950s and 1960s pioneered a new way of thinking about music that not only affected the way music sounded, but also the way it was shared and distributed. In many ways, free jazz was a movement away from mainstream and mass-distribution and the rediscovery of music as art, but also as folk music, meaning a more direct and less commercial communication with the audience. This also meant that many musicians took the matter ...
read moreBlaise Siwula / Dom Minasi: The Sunshine Don't Mind My Singing
by Hrayr Attarian
Saxophonist and clarinetist Blaise Siwula and guitarist Dom Minasi share a unique musical vision and seamless camaraderie. Years of performing and recoding together have crystallized their adventurous outlook and their intellectual communion. The sublime set of spontaneous duets; The Sunshine Don't Mind My Singing is the perfect showcase of these attributes.Siwula and Minasi weave elements from various genres into the half a dozen, stimulating improvisations that comprise the album. “Upstream Boogie," for instance starts out as a deconstructed ...
read moreBlaise Siwula / Dom Minasi: The Sunshine Don't Mind My Singing
by Jakob Baekgaard
Good music does not come out of nowhere. It grows from tradition and experience. This is especially evident in a genre like jazz where the use of improvisation is crucial. Improvisation, at least the interesting kind, has echoes of the past. The exciting thing as a listener is to hear how the musical knowledge of the past is transformed into new sounds in the moment. In the best of all worlds, the joy of creating through improvisation ...
read moreBlaise Siwula and Dom Minasi: Live at The Matt Bevel Institute
by Gordon Marshall
Dom Minasi is an acutely sensitive guitarist with an oblique approach and an aim to please, plucking his way through runs with persistence and nerve. His live duet with saxophonist Blaise Siwula sums these qualities up neatly, in configurations that unfold and build up melodically through a set that, by the end, is enveloped in a glorious buzz.
A paradox is at work within Minasi's style. His lines underscoring Siwula's sax passages have a geometrical torque, but he inflects them ...
read moreBlaise Siwula: Projection: Zero; Transphonic Dimensions & Hommage an Klaus Kinski
by Robert Iannapollo
Blaise Siwula / Carsten Radtke Projection: Zero Konnex 2008 W.O.O. Presents Mambo Mantis Transphonic Dimensions Konnex 2007 Nobu Stowe-Lee Pembleton Project Hommage an Klaus Kinski Soul Note 2007
Saxophonist Blaise Siwula has been an active participant in New York's 'underground' jazz scene for ...
read moreBlaise Siwula / Dom Minasi / Nobu Stowe / Ray Sage: New York Moments
by Glenn Astarita
No frills or trickery enacted here, as its all about a collective of like-minded musical spirits letting the chips fall where they may. This quartet stokes the coals and generates some high-heat during this rollicking and stimulating improv fest recorded at The Studio in New York City. New York Moments also serves as the companion for the trio date, Brooklyn Moments (Konnex, 2007), featuring the same personnel sans the services of guitarist Dom Minasi.
Multi-reedman Blaise Siwula sparks ...
read moreBlaise Siwula and Adam Lane: Tandem Rivers
by Jeff Stockton
"One and one don’t make two. One and one make one," said Pete Townshend. He may as well have been talking about Blaise Siwula (alto and soprano saxophones) and Adam Lane (contrabass), whose instruments intertwine on this intimate, entirely improvised set where the saxophones pop to keep time and the bass growls disconsolately in a role reversal of sound. Siwula and Lane go on some relatively long walks, but they rarely move faster than a jog, often grounded ...
read moreNew York Encuentro: Blaise Siwula in Excellent Form with K. Itakura and R. Gilman-Opalsky
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
Now that what was once called the “new thing" is nearly 50 years young, we have a chance to assess what has gone on so far. Not today, however, since as I write this New Jersey is headed toward 100-plus-degree weather and my office is rapidly becoming an oven with yours truly as the tuna casserole. Nevertheless there are substyles in “free" improv that are well marked out and players are working within the various parameters with increasing economy of ...
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Sten Hostfalt Trio featuring Dave Miller, Blaise Siwula Live at National Underground (NYC) May 21, 2011
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Sten Hostfalt
Celebrating the two Spring 2011 Sonus Rex NYC CD releases Now Matter and Moneytown Sonus Rex NYC proudly presents Sten Hostfalt Trio featuring Dave Miller and Blaise Siwula in concert at National Underground, Saturday May 21 2011. National Underground 159 E Houston Street New York NY 10002 9pm / $11 Dave Miller—drums Blaise Siwula—alto/tenor saxophone Sten Hostfalt—guitar Award-Winning, critically acclaimed guitar virtuoso phenom, composer and bandleader Sten Hostfalt's unique original artistry carries ...
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Blaise Siwula, Solo Tenor Sax, "Live in London"
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
How many solo saxophone records have I heard? A good many. Are they all wonderful? No. If the player is not imspired or comes to the date unprepared, it can be slow going for the listener. Happily that is not the case with Blaise Siwula's Live in London (No Frills Music 001). It's from two separate live appearances in 2008. He switches to clarinet on one track and Alan Wilkinson joins him on the baritone for the final number. What ...
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Blaise Siwula and Sten Hostfalt at University Of The Streets Thursday Feb 24
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Sten Hostfalt
Blaise Siwula—saxophone and Sten Hostfalt—guitar live in concert at The University Of The Streets NYC Thursday February 24 2011 at 8pm / $10 This Feb. 24 2011 concert performance, originally scheduled with guitarist Dom Minasi, was due to illness, switched to guitarist colleague, and Siwula's regular duo companion for the past three years, Sten Hostfalt. Sten Hostfalt / Blaise Siwula's duo CD 'Now Matter,' released on the Sonus Rex label, Jan. 30 2011, is available worldwide ...
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Sten Hostfalt / Blaise Siwula Live at Goodbye Blue Monday NYC
Source:
All About Jazz
Sten Hostfalt / Shiro Onuma / Blaise Siwula at Freddys Backroom (Brooklyn) on July 29
Source:
Michael Ricci
Sten Hostfalt/Blaise Siwula at Goodye Blue Monday NYC June 30
Source:
All About Jazz
Human beings spend their lives trying not to be alone. Once they find company, they begin the elusive search to rediscover their initial solitude. In music, the solo recording reflects this contradictory quest. In many ways it is the most intriguing form, both for fan and artist, and once finally attempted, it is charged with a discernible aspiration to retrieve the ensemble format. First to come to mind on the first track of tenor saxophonist Blaise Siwula’s Live in London, “Stutter’s Waltz”, is Peter Brötzmann in the stammering orgies of deep tones and harmonics. Siwula invokes Albert Ayler on the second track, “On the Plains of Brooklyn”, with a simple, folk-like melody that slowly deconstructs into darker, earthier tones, closing, as Ayler often did, anthemically. “Transparent Dialogue” is a paradigm of what Siwula does all along: he attacks the problem inherent in a single-instrument excursus by engaging in dialogue with himself. Often, as suggested, this involves the play of lighter and darker, of higher and lower tones; but also, as in this tune, short staccato bursts contrasted with longer, legato lopes. Siwula is a master duettist and he has no trouble transposing this knack to a self-on-self context. Again, melody and barrages of sound walls stack up against one another swimmingly, as Siwula always hints at harmony even in his noisiest squawks and his tunefulness is ever tempered by a robust, muscular delivery.
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Blaise Siwula
Location: New York City
Instrument: Saxophone
Born: February 19, 1950
